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Social CRM is becoming a bigger deal as businesses grow in the social spaces. Where we once referred to this all as "social media" or "new media", we've begun to shift the jargon in how we talk about the spaces. Moving from words indicating "what", we are now using words to indicate "how" we work in the spaces. You've likely seen me use the phrase "Social Business" in the past few months. I made this shift in verbiage based on the fact that "Social Media" really just described the tools we used, not how we used them. We are a business after all, and our primary focus is to help our clients, to help YOU, be successful with the products and services IBM provides. We are constantly striving to improve how we engage and help, which not only means implementing our strategies, but to get out and learn as much as we can about how best to work in these spaces. And wouldn't you know it, in my effort to learn more, I was pointed to a fabulous paper provided by IBM Global Business Services (http://ibm.com/iibv) surrounding the concept of Social CRM. More specifically, this paper discusses what customers want from brands when they engage in the social spaces.

From social media to Social CRM: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/ibv-social-crm-whitepaper.htmlThere is some really great and recent information in this paper outlining the gap between what customers want and what companies/brands -think customers want. (As an aside, one of my difficulties has been finding studies like this which match the present climate. Most social media/social business studies I have found were released as far back as 2008 or 2009, some of the more recent ones in early 2010 based on 2009 data. This particular paper has the most up to date information I've found thus far!) While the paper provides some very eye-opening data and likely will help change how many businesses focus on their social efforts, I was happily surprised to see that our efforts in IBM Rational Support, as well as the larger IBM Rational brand efforts appear to fall in line with the gap table of customers' rankings. Now, I may be biased here (an amazing realization, I know), but I think our four social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and here on NFRS) are indeed aligned directly with customer/client demands from a support organization. But that's just my view, we'd love to hear your view. So go on and take some time to read the Social CRM paper. I think you'll find some very valuable insights there which you can take back to your own areas and use the data to build your own successes in social business. Of course, once you've read read the paper we here in Rational Support would really appreciate your insights as to how you really think we're doing here and how we may be able to improve the spaces to help you be even more successful!

Are you following us on your preferred social channel? Did you know we've recently launched a GooglePlus and Tumblr blog? While no channel is meant to be a catch-all, we want to get you the information you want and need in the channels you are most comfortable with. Do you find twitter is the best place to find our content and engage with us? Follow us there! Twitter not your style but rather you prefer Facebook? We're posting there as well to help you find the right information at the right time! Check out our news document linked below to see all the channels on which we're active and follow us on the ones you're most comfortable with:

Without losing sight of the work we do in the newer social channels, we also want to ensure you don't forget about some of the most effective community based channels out there surrounding Rational products and topics. Finding answers from previous questions, or even direct community based help with your own specific question can be a great way to leverage the collective wisdom, but even better is when you can join in the conversations and share your own expertise to help others.

While the above are great resources for truly social support with clients and IBMers alike all participating, we also recognize that this isn't a complete list of all the forums or social channels out there. Is your favourite one missing? Let us know in the comments and we'll add it to the list! Or, do you have some other favourite method for finding answers or sharing answers which we haven't touched on? We'd love to hear about those as well!

First and foremost: Thank you all! You've spoken up, told us who you are and where you find value in our social business outlets. You even gave us some actionable comments which we've taken to heart! We've collated your replies and analyzed the results....

And WHAT was it you told us? Well, for starters, you find a lot of value in this here blog. You also told us you find substantial value in our Youtube channel! Less so, and not surprisingly, you find Twitter and Facebook of lesser value. You also specifically asked for more Youtube videos, and to make them version specific. Lastly, you asked us about adding a LinkedIn channel, and pointed out MyNotifications as a great information tool as well.

To date, we've used Twitter and Facebook to signpost high value content (some of which we source directly from MyNotifications), while Youtube and the NFRS dW blog have been home for more rich content creation as well as highlighting the top bits. We'll be continuing in this fashion, but with some slight shifts in how we manage the various channels.

You may have already noticed some of the changes coming down: we'll be focusing more on blogging the really great content, and won't be tweeting/Facbooking so much of the content you can already get by setting up a MyNotifications subscription We still intend to post available releases and fixes to both Twitter and Facebook, as well a sign post some of the other bits of great content coming out of other blogs and communities, we just won't be cultivating those two channels quite as much.

Instead, we are shifting our social business focus to provide much more rich, deep, and valuable content via this blog as well as through our Youtube channel. We have a few projects up our sleeves which we are working behind the scenes to roll out in ways which will prove beneficial for you all.

As for LinkedIn, Rational Software announced our own group a few weeks back. We in Rational Support have begun playing in that space, and encourage you all to do the same. We hope to grow our individual presences there, but also intend to be more involved in the other Rational groups around the site. Of course we wouldn't have any of this actionable information if you all hadn't provided such great feedback. Thank you, one and all, for telling us how you think we're doing! But this wasn't your last chance to leave feedback: you have opportunities every day to ping us on Twitter, Facebook, or here in the NFRS comments to let us know what you like or dislike, what you want us to change, and of course what you want us to keep doing. We can never get enough feedback! So, thank you all for helping us with our social business survey and thanks in advance for future feedback... As Kelly would say, you all ROCK!

In IBM we know you likely have products across our expansive portfolio... and while we may be focused on Rational Support specifically here, we also recognize that you may also benefit from some of our counterparts across IBM support. To help you identify, follow, and engage with support across IBM, here are a few accounts you may not have known about:

So, there you go. More social resources for support in IBM than you can effectively shake a stick at. I'm sure not all will be relevant for everyone, but I do hope you will find added benefit from some of the additional accounts highlighted above. If you have, please don't forget to let us know; we all love feedback and consider your words one of the most valuable resources we have to help you find even more success!